"On helping set up women's branch of Democratic Foundation 1880s London" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/515 |
| Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Extract |
| Letter Date | 19 August 1914 |
| Address From | na |
| Address To | |
| Who To | S.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 337-8 |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner were produced by Cronwright-Schreiner in preparing The Life and The Letters of Olive Schreiner. They appear on slips of paper in his writing, taken from letters that were then destroyed; many of these extracts have also been edited by him. They are artefacts of his editorial practices and their relationship to original Schreiner letters cannot now be gauged. They should be read with considerable caution for the reasons given. Cronwright-Schreiner has written the date and where it was sent from onto this extract. There are some differences between this transcription and the version that appears in The Letters….
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...?Griesan ?Kr ?Seh ?Weidrietz...
2
3 …At Weimar I got out as I wanted to see Goethe’s house. It’s a
4pretty little town. I walked about a mile & a half to reach it. The
5heat was intense & a great thunderstorm was just coming on. When I got
6to the house the man at the door told me it was closed till 3. I
7walked out my best German & told him I had come all the way from
8Africa, that I might never be able to come again & that since I was a
9girl of 16 I had dreamed of coming. At last his German heart was moved
10& he said I could go up with the little boy. It’s a simple old house.
11 I tell you how his study & death room went to my heart. The tiny
12bedroom in which he died is not a bit bigger than our little spare
13room at De Aar! Just room for single bed - a tiny table & washing
14stand of dark wood & the hard old arm chair in which he died & the cup
15& bottle which stood there when he died still standing there. The
16window is a tiny 6 framed window - no wonder his last words were
17“more light”. What a strange sermon on modern luxury. That was all
18one of the greatest of men needed. I cared for it even more than the
19house at Frankfurt…
20
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2
3 …At Weimar I got out as I wanted to see Goethe’s house. It’s a
4pretty little town. I walked about a mile & a half to reach it. The
5heat was intense & a great thunderstorm was just coming on. When I got
6to the house the man at the door told me it was closed till 3. I
7walked out my best German & told him I had come all the way from
8Africa, that I might never be able to come again & that since I was a
9girl of 16 I had dreamed of coming. At last his German heart was moved
10& he said I could go up with the little boy. It’s a simple old house.
11 I tell you how his study & death room went to my heart. The tiny
12bedroom in which he died is not a bit bigger than our little spare
13room at De Aar! Just room for single bed - a tiny table & washing
14stand of dark wood & the hard old arm chair in which he died & the cup
15& bottle which stood there when he died still standing there. The
16window is a tiny 6 framed window - no wonder his last words were
17“more light”. What a strange sermon on modern luxury. That was all
18one of the greatest of men needed. I cared for it even more than the
19house at Frankfurt…
20
21